Touched by the words of a stranger

Sunday evening. After a week in Dodoma, a place too hot to walk fast and too unfamiliar to walk far, followed by a fourteen hour bus journey to get back to Mbeya, it was time for a walk. I headed off up the hill to do my favourite circuit through the woods, over streams and up and down the mountainside. As I climbed the slippery path I met a Tanzanian lady, who had been collecting firewood. We greeted each other and, pointing up the hill, she asked me where I was going to spend the night. I told her I would go back home, and pointed roughly in the direction of my house. She cautioned me not to go far as it would be dark soon.
I was touched by these words of a stranger – a lady near the end of a hard day’s labour, yet concerned about the wanderings of a foreigner. Her words echoed those of my good friends here, who I had seen just before setting off, and who always want to know when I am back safely from a walk alone. What a blessing to be so cared for, by strangers and friends alike. If humans, in their selfishness, can show such love and care – think of how great God’s perfect love and care is for us, his children! And I believe He shows us that love and care through those around us, strangers and friends alike.

Waiting for a blown tyre to be changed on the long bus trip!

Teaching Sunday School

This Sunday I taught Sunday School for the second time at the church I attend here in Mbeya. I left it feeling very tired and somewhat dejected. Let me share the experience with you…
…I arrived a few minutes early. Six children were waiting for me – five girls aged 8-10 and one toddler. I couldn’t really do the game I had planned with that number of children, so I started with Simon Says, hoping that more would turn up. None did. So then I did a little relay race to get the names of the first five books of the Bible – the problem was that only one of the children had been there the previous week so they hadn’t got a clue how to put them in order. Finally I started the teaching, and a few more children arrived. I persevered in teaching them about Jeremiah – an example of someone who gave up his time to tell people the words of God (as we are doing a series about the Bible, using some Swahili Sunday School materials). Gradually the number of children increased, but it was always the same two or three girls who put up their hands to answer questions. By the end there were probably 30 children packed into the little room, some of them arriving just 10 minutes before the end of the hour-long class!
So, if anyone has any suggestions on how to teach children who arrive at different times, are of a wide variety of ages, who don’t own Bibles and may not even have access to one at home and who don’t even seem to know the story of Moses in the bulrushes, please share them with me!! And pray for my ability to communicate with them clearly in Swahili – I’m sure my inaptitude in this area is part of the problem! Jesus said, “Let the little children come unto me… for of such is the kingdom of heaven.” I hope that these little children will come to Him and come to love His Word.

One of those days

Friday was just one of those days when everything seems to go wrong! First was the shock of some difficult changes that might have to take place at work in the year ahead – it’s always difficult in our work with a constant flow of people coming and going and change is inevitable. Then there was a sad farewell lunch as we said goodbye to a friend and colleague who will be sorely missed (we were also celebrating being settled in our new offices)! Then I broke my tooth – or at least, broke the cap off my tooth that I originally broke when I was a child. Then there was the milk – I left it just for a few seconds and it boiled over (as all our milk is fresh and has to be boiled before use). Well, as they say, "There’s no point in crying over spilt milk" – but by this point it was getting hard to keep control of the emotions. Then the icing on the cake, which was really a very small thing but after everything else it just tipped me over the edge, was finding out I didn’t have enough eggs to both make the pancakes I’d planned for tea and do an eggy filling for them that my friends like.

And now it’s Saturday…the good news is that I was able to get my tooth fixed**… however, otherwise it seems to be another ‘one of those days’! I got less than 5 hours sleep (just couldn’t get to sleep – maybe it was the coffee), I have an upset tummy and the milk seems to have a vendetta against me as the little milk jug I had put a the last of the old milk in fell over in the fridge and got milk all over the vegetables.

**Things can go wonderfully smoothly when you know the right people here! Getting my tooth fixed… My landlady just happens to be a dentist. Yesterday she phoned a colleague in the hospital 5 minutes up the road and today I was able to go and get it fixed! Looks like he’s done a really good job, and he had good English so I didn’t have to cope with medical vocabulary in Swahili!

A typical rainy day - looking out the back of my house